Finished Powerslave tonight, after about a week’s worth of playing, getting stuck, looking up FAQs and video playthroughs, abusing save states and generally doing my best to change the rules of the game to be in my favor without actually going over the line into the likes of invulnerability codes.

Put simply: If I’d tried playing this game back in 1996, when I bought it, before SSF and youtube and gamefaqs… There’s no bloody way I would have been able to make it through. It exudes an attitude towards the player that, while not entirely out of place at the time, would come across as actual hatred if it cropped up in a modern game.

You will, the game says, make 8 precision jumps from moving platform to moving platform, high above lava while being bombarded by flying enemies, and if you don’t manage to do it, you’ll be sent back to the start to try again.

Modern games generally don’t do this.

The experience did, however, give me a marvelous sense of perspective. The next time I’m playing a console game that actually does pull this sort of player abuse, I’m just going to put it aside until whatever console I’m playing it on gets emulated so I can get through it the cheap way. 🙂